Silver! a shimmering exhibition in the spirit of creativity & community @ Form/Design Center

09 Sep 2023 – 12 Nov 2023

The association ‘Nutida Svenskt Silver’ turns 60 and celebrates the anniversary year with a shimmering exhibition in the spirit of creativity and community.

Nutida Svenskt Silver (Contemporary Swedish Silver) opened its very first exhibition, Ungt Silver (Young Silver), in 1963, and in the 60 years that followed, generations of smiths have passed through Nutida’s community. In a tribute to the years gone by, Nutida Svenskt Silver celebrates the anniversary year with a shimmering celebratory exhibition in the sign of creativity and community, what has made the association last through the decades: a community where skilled blacksmiths can find both warmth and support as well as creative challenges, and an ongoing meeting between safe traditions and innovative extravagances.

The association has played a significant role in the creative and artistic development of Swedish corpus and jewellery art, the approach to free art and the strong position of Swedish silversmiths internationally. Nutida’s main task as an association is to promote contemporary craft and the closely intertwined gold and silversmithing traditions.

In the exhibited works, the blacksmiths explore materials and the possibilities of the craft, many on the theme of celebration, such as Helena Sandström in Ceremonial party wear for fragile souls or Caroline Lindholm with magnificent cocktail rings.

“I like parties, glamour, glitter and metal. It won’t be right now. Cocktail rings – they should be big. Take a seat and gild their carriers”, says Caroline Lindholm.

The exhibition also contains perspectives on current issues of the time, from the deeply personal to the universal, such as Aviva Scheiman’s table ornaments Life, Woman and Freedom, or Åsa Elmstam’s hand claw bracelet Homage to peaceful civil disobedience.

“Behind peaceful civil disobedience are theories developed over hundreds of years by, among others, Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and the Suffragettes. Our society today loves civil disobedience – as long as it happens in the past or somewhere else. The current climate and ecological crisis does not seem to be able to get a solution without peaceful civil disobedience, the disobedience is important to push public opinion on the issue”, says Åsa Elmstam.